Just Another Day at the Office
Just Another Day at the Office is a short novel by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga, first featured in the first issue of The Official Magazine. The storyline takes place right after the events of The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor. Plot Synopsis The same night as Major Gene Gavin's death, a zombie herd arrives at Woodbury's outer fence one mile from the town square and cause it to collapse. Woodbury's residents scatter in different directions as the entire south edge of the wall starts to give in and swiftly falls down. Some people start to open fire while others barricade their doors and hide. One man is caught in an alley and tries to push his way through the approaching zombies before being devoured. The town is soon overrun and biters roam everywhere. Most of the townspeople quickly run out of bullets. One lost child, maybe five or six years old, wanders around in a Thomas the Tank Engine sweat suit with a moth-eaten blanket. Three adults and four teenage biters begin to approach the boy. One grabs him but he quickly darts away into the path of another two biters. He falls over as the zombies begin to descend upon him before automatic gunfire mows down all nine biters. Four men run up to the boy. 'Philip' Blake orders the others to check the kid for bites. Martínez claims that the kid is fine before carrying him inside the courthouse. Philip, Gabe and Bruce work their way to ground zero, where the fence caved in. Philip practices with his TEC-9 by spraying in the vicinity of the zombies' heads. Philip orders the wall to stay down until he says otherwise as he digs for National Guard weapons in Martínez's battered SUV. Martínez asks Philip what his plan is. Philip asks if the south side of the town is still secure, which it is. He tells Martínez that he's going to go to the gas station over the hill, five minutes from Woodbury. He orders Martínez and the makeshift militia to keep the biters rounded up in the centre of town. Over the next five minutes, the eleven men and two women begin to thin out the herd. Five minutes in, Martínez climbs a fire escape ladder and begins to wonder if Philip has left with the SUV and all the guns when he hears yelling coming from a megaphone at the Marathon station two hundred yards north of the downed fence. Philip Blake yells insults and profanities at the herd of dead shambling towards him. He then starts to open fire at the first biters to reach the gas station. He climbs in the SUV and begins honking the horn while the parking lot fills with zombies and the SUV becomes surrounded by dead flesh. He thinks about shooting himself in the mouth before remembering he has other plans. He drives through a mass of zombies before the SUV gets stuck. He then begins firing out the vehicle's back window and at the gas pumps, causing a three large explosions, before a hidden C4 he placed goes off and sends the SUV flying onto its side and obliterating the drawn herd. The militia witness the explosion and instinctively duck down as a fireball launches into the sky, body parts rain, car alarms go off and the ground shakes. The townspeople patrol the fenced off areas of Woodbury, killing any remaining zombies and moving all bodies to a mass funeral pyre outside the courthouse. As Martínez helps to secure the wall, a shadowy figure approaches the town. As he gets closer Martínez recognises him as Philip. He compliments him on his work to which Philip smiles and responds with "Just another day at the office". Characters *Brian Blake *Caesar Ramón Martínez *Bruce Allan Cooper *Gabriel Harris *Gene Gavin (Mentioned) *Woodbury residents Deaths *At least one Woodbury resident Trivia *The title refers to a line spoken by Brian Blake. *The length of the novel is about the same as an ordinary chapter of the other novels. *This short story also includes an extended excerpt for The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury. *This is the first (and only) short story in The Walking Dead Novel Series. Goofs/Errors * At the beginning of the chapter, the narration states that the time is "4:43 PM Central Standard Time", however Woodbury is in Georgia, which is not in that time zone. Category:Novels Category:Media and Merchandise Category:The Walking Dead: Just Another Day at the Office Category:Books Category:The Walking Dead